Old Tucson

Buildings look solid from the outside, but in the interior are these wonderful shaded courtyards.

See how thick the wall is where the mailbox is hanging?  That's how thick adobe walls are.  They keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The old area of downtown Tucson is home to many adobe buildings, most still in use.  We wandered around, in and out of unique shops, enjoying the fine weather, taking pictures, admiring the beautiful plants and finally eating lunch at the original El Charro, still in the house where it was started.  They have expanded the building just a bit, though.

An adobe house in need of a bit of maintenance.  The adobe brick is showing through where the stucco is missing. 



Bright colors are everywhere!



A great place for Mexican food and their Margaritas are yummy!

Old sign from when the building was in use.

Aqua Caliente Park

Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert.  We have a vast assortment of native cactus, trees, and such, but it is still a desert, so no lush greenery.  Except, where you find an oasis.  Aqua Caliente is such a place.  It is fed by it's name sake hot spring, Aqua Caliente,  Hot Water.  It was first part of a cattle ranch, then a place for tourists to soak in the warm waters for their health, then back to a ranch, and finally, a park belonging to Pima County.  A great place to walk around, sit and watch the ducks, or even a picnic.

Tucson Tourists

Even though we have lived in Tucson for almost two years, we haven't had opportunity to be tour guides for visitors.  Well, all of that is changing this year, as company is coming.  That, and Bill's new camera will allow us to show the beauties of the Tucson area.  So hang on to your hat, pardner!

Balanced Rock at Windy Point on the Mount Lemon Highway.

More Neighbors

We had visitors to our yard.  Amy spotted them first, walking in front of her office.  They proceeded down the front of the house, until they were in front of our bedroom, which fortunately is a glass wall.  Oh the excitement!  It isn't often one gets to see a bobcat up close, plus it's a baby!

On The Lookout!

Our house sitting site, housecarers.com, is starting to have ads for later in the summer.  We are booked until July 6, so we are pleased that sits for after that date are starting to come up.  We have applied for one in Switzerland, and hope it works out.  Of course, we always hope it works out!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Off To A Good Start!

The holiday decorations are put away.  The tree is hauled out to the brush pile.  There is still some cleaning and shuffeling of items on the bookshelves to be done.  But all in all the house is back to it's pre-holiday norm.  Now we have to get ready for company later in the month as well as in February.  This is an excited propostion, as for the past few years, we have been the company not the hosts!

Our mountains. Although it is sunny, it is brrr cold!

It has been cold the past week.  We wrapped a few plants to keep them from freezing or at the least suffering damage. This involved putting Christmas lights on them, then wrapping sheets around, and in two cases, an additional covering of plastic.  One of the cactus has a wrapping of papertowels, then a plastic pitcher turned upside down on it, to protect the tip.  Garden Art?  Today it will all be put away, much like the holiday decorations.

Bonne Année 2011!

New Year's Eve 2007, Tesse Froulay, France.